WVU’s Hawkins strives to get better during bye week
AP Photo/Gregory Payan
MORGANTOWN (W.Va.) — West Virginia quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. had a lot of fans at the TCU game. Hawkins is from Dallas, which isn’t too far from Fort Worth, so he had a big ensemble cheering him on.
“Aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, it was a lot of people,” Hawkins said.
It was a game Hawkins was looking forward to. Hawkins put on another big performance on the ground, even against one of the top defenses in the Big 12. He added two more rushing touchdowns to his season total of now 16, which is tied for the most in college football with Army quarterback Cale Hellums. He had 94 yards to go with the two scores.
Against a talented defensive front, Hawkins had to be patient when carrying the football.
“Just kind of taking it play by play,” Hawkins said. “Letting it develop.”
There haven’t been any questions this season about Hawkins’ playmaking when he’s running with the football. But there’ve been questions about his throwing ability. Hawkins quickly silenced the noise and threw for a career-high 464 yards in the victory over Cincinnati, but against TCU, Hawkins had his ups and downs again.
Hawkins threw for a season-low 79 yards and completed 7-for-15 passes and threw an interception. It was his fourth game where he had under a 50% completion percentage. He had a few overthrows, and his receivers had costly drops — the biggest one that stands out was D.J. Epps dropping a perfectly thrown ball for a touchdown. It was far from perfect.
“We obviously played a great defense, has a great secondary, great D-linemen,” Hawkins said. “I think the biggest thing for us as a whole was just mental errors. For me, connecting with my receivers that I shouldn’t have missed. Those were big moments in the game.”
The Horned Frogs defense and secondary combine for one of the top defenses in the conference and country, so it wasn’t surprising the offense couldn’t get rolling through the air. The offense as a whole only had 24 points and 272 yards.
TCU’s defense wanted to make Hawkins beat it with his arm, as he did against the Bearcats a week prior. Most of the time, Hawkins said TCU dropped back in coverage rather than rushing him. None of the coverages were anything new, mainly Cover 3 and Cover 4.
“They didn’t bring a lot of pressure,” Hawkins said. “I think the biggest thing is just taking what they give you. Some of those plays I didn’t. Just getting back on the board, on film and just kind of reflecting and knowing that I can do better to help the team win. That was probably the biggest thing.”
Hawkins has shown improvement from week to week throwing. And he’s improved in other ways, including being a leader. Hawkins is quiet, which is what Rich Rodriguez said in the spring, but he’s become more vocal. He has to be as a quarterback on the team.
Hawkins still isn’t the loudest, but as he matures, he should only get better in that department.
“I feel like I’ve matured more as a leader,” Hawkins said. “Just kind of keeping our guys engaged. The passing game is getting there. Taking it week by week, so just getting that going and focusing on that. That’s the biggest thing for us as an offense, and me personally.”
The Mountaineers take a two-game winning streak into a much-needed bye week. Hawkins plans to rest, but also work on the areas he mentioned that need fine-tuning.
The road for WVU only gets harder in the final four games. The Mountaineers head to No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 6 Utah, and host No. 18 Houston. All aspects of Hawkins’ game need to be on point to sneak out a couple of upsets and ride high into next season, where Hawkins should remain the quarterback.
“I say our best ball is ahead of us,” Hawkins said. “We are playing pretty good. I feel like we have a lot of things to fix. Me personally, too. This bye week is big for us. We’ve been at it for eight weeks, so it’s a good feeling.”